Cognitive Engagement Mediates the Relationship between Positive Life Events and Positive Emotionality

Your Need for Cognition, Cognitive Flexibility, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Matter! The Path beyond a Satisfied Life

This study explored the associations among cognitive flexibility, cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies, need for cognition, and life satisfaction, which represents a cognitive component of subjective well-being. Previous studies have shown the importance of adaptive CER strategies for well-being, while maladaptive strategies have been linked to negative outcomes such as psychological distress, depression, and anxiety. Additionally, the need for cognition has been associated with cognitive flexibility and positive outcomes in various domains. However, the specific roles of cognitive flexibility and CER strategies in the relationship between need for cognition and life satisfaction remain relatively unexplored in the existing literature. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating how cognitive flexibility and different CER strategies contribute to the relationship between need for cognition and life satisfaction in a non-clinical sample of 239 adults via a survey consisting of a demographic information form, need for cognition scale, cognitive flexibility inventory, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, and satisfaction with life scale. The results demonstrated that when individuals with a high need for cognition had cognitive flexibility, they were more likely to use adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, resulting in elevated life satisfaction. The findings of this study may provide insights into the underlying mechanisms that influence individuals' cognitive processes, cognitive emotional regulation, and overall life satisfaction. Such understanding can have implications for interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive flexibility, promoting adaptive CER strategies, and ultimately fostering improved life satisfaction.

Need for cognition and burnout in teachers - A replication and extension study

Burnout has become more prevalent, mainly in social jobs, and there is evidence that certain personality traits protect against burnout. Only recently, studies have focused on investment traits like Need for Cognition (NFC), the stable intrinsic motivation to seek out and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. This study had three aims: First, the replication of findings by Grass et al. (2018), who investigated NFC and the burnout subscale reduced personal efficacy in student teachers, in a sample of 180 teachers. Second, investigating the role of perceived demands and resources in the context of NFC and burnout. And finally, creating an exploratory model for further research. The results indicated that unlike the student sample, the teachers' association of NFC and reduced personal efficacy was mediated by self-control but not reappraisal. Teachers with higher NFC and self-control also had lower burnout because they experienced their resources as fitting to the demands.

Cognitive Motivation as a Resource for Affective Adjustment and Mental Health

Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and negatively to depressive symptoms. A test of these associations in a clinical sample is lacking. Methods: We assessed cognitive motivation, self-regulation and depressive symptoms by means of well-validated questionnaires in N = 1,060 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients before and after treatment. Data were split and analyzed in two steps: We tested previously reported cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of all variables as well as their longitudinal changes in a first sample. Afterward, findings and derived hypotheses were replicated and tested in a second sample. Results: Analyses of both samples confirmed earlier reports on positive associations between cognitive motivation and self-regulation, and negative associations of both with depressive symptoms. While the change in all variables was predicted by their baseline scores, higher baseline cognitive motivation was found to predict stronger improvements in self-regulation, and lower baseline depression scores to predict smaller changes in cognitive motivation and self-regulation. In addition, the change in cognitive motivation partially mediated the association between the changes in depressive symptoms and self-regulation. Conclusion: Based on a large longitudinal data set, the present study expands previous findings and suggests a resource allocation model in which decreasing depressive symptoms lead to a release of capacities benefitting self-regulation directly, and indirectly via cognitive motivation.

Thinking in action: Need for Cognition predicts Self-Control together with Action Orientation

Need for Cognition describes relatively stable interindividual differences in cognitive motivation. Previous research has shown relations of Need for Cognition to Self-Control–a capacity that can be broadly defined as resistance to temptation–yet, the processes underlying this relation remain unclear. One explanation for the prediction of Self-Control by Need for Cognition can be an increased motivation to invest cognitive effort with higher levels of Need for Cognition. Another possible link could be that individual differences in the implementation of Self-Control intentions may play a moderating or mediating role for the predictive value of Need for Cognition. Such individual differences in the self-motivated initiation and maintenance of intentions are described by dispositional Action Orientation. Therefore, in the present study, Action Orientation was examined with regard to its possible role in explaining the relation of Need for Cognition to Self-Control. In a sample of 1209 young adults, Self-Control was assessed with two different self-report instruments and moderation and mediation models of the relationship between Need for Cognition, Action Orientation, and Self-Control were tested. While there was no evidence for a moderating role of Action Orientation in explaining the relation of Need for Cognition and Self-Control, Action Orientation was found to partly mediate this relation with a remaining direct effect of Need for Cognition on Self-Control. These results add to the conceptual understanding of Need for Cognition and demonstrate the relevance of trait variables to predict Self-Control.

Freude am Denken als Schlüssel zum Erfolg? Die Bedeutung von Need for Cognition für subjektives Erleben und Leistung im Studium

Zusammenfassung.Need for Cognition (NFC) beschreibt interindividuelle Unterschiede in der Freude an und der Beschäftigung mit anspruchsvollen kognitiven Aufgaben. Bisherige Forschung im akademischen Kontext untersuchte NFC vorrangig im Zusammenhang mit kognitiven und leistungsbezogenen Variablen. In dieser Studie wurde hingegen die Bedeutung von NFC für Erfolg im Studium insbesondere für subjektives Erleben untersucht. Für ein besseres Verständnis wurde die vermittelnde Rolle der regulativen Merkmale Selbstkontrollkapazität, Strategien der Emotionsregulation und Copingverhalten geprüft. Untersucht wurden Lehramtsstudierende (N = 167) als Gruppe, die bereits im Studium eine erhöhte Beanspruchung zeigt. Erwartungskonform hing NFC mit fast allen regulativen Merkmalen zusammen. Bezogen auf Studienerfolg wurden die Annahmen nur teilweise bestätigt: NFC war mit besseren Studienleistungen und einer höheren subjektiven Leistungsfähigkeit assoziiert. Dabei wurde die Vorhersage wahrgenommener Leistungsfähigkeit über regulative Merkmale vermittelt. Zukünftige Studien sollten untersuchen, weshalb in dieser Stichprobe nur ein Teil der Erlebensaspekte mit NFC zusammenhingen und die Ergebnisse für Studierende anderer Fächer prüfen.

Intellectual Investment, Dopaminergic Gene Variation, and Life Events: A Critical Examination

Need for Cognition (NFC) and Openness to Ideas are intellectual investment traits that are characterized by a tendency to seek out, engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity. Little, however, is known about the extent to which they are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. With the present contribution, we aim at furthering our knowledge on the mechanisms underlying intellectual investment traits by following-up on a recent investigation of the role of dopaminergic gene variation in intellectual investment. Employing a standard approach that relied on null-hypothesis significance testing, we found that, first, two dopaminergic genetic variants interacted in modulating individual differences in NFC, but not in Openness to Ideas; that, second, negative life events played a role in the modulation of Openness to Ideas, but not of NFC; and that, third, negative life events as assessed using another measure were only marginally related to Openness to Ideas while positive life events were associated with both Openness to Ideas and NFC, with the latter effect being also dependent on DRD4 exon III genotype. However, employing a Bayesian approach, the assumption of a genetic effect on investment traits was overall not supported, while the assumption of a role of positive life events in the modulation of investment traits could be confirmed, with a tentative increment in the prediction of NFC by adding an interaction of positive life events and DRD4 variation to the main effect of positive life events. Our findings underscore the importance to use different approaches in the field of personality neuroscience. To gain deeper insight into the basis of personality traits does not only require to consider genetic as well as environmental influences and their interplay, but also requires more differentiated statistical analyses that can at least in part tackle the often inconsistent findings in this field.